Page 7 - The Badger – December 2023

THE BADGER
Sport
continued The tour to to Holland also gave us the opportunity to remember the many
thousandsofyoungmenwhopaidthe ultimate sacrifice in the defence of our freedom in First World War through the very emotional and sombre experience of laying a a a wreath on behalf of the whole school community at at at the the Menin Gate in in Ypres and at at at the the high level of skill and technique and again achieved some very promising results Swimming
is starting to show some clear
progress at the school and it is hoped that we will be able to take
some of our swimmers to National
IAPS events in in the the future We are also looking forward to the the return of our very own Aquathlon in the Summer Term which has been a a a a a a notable absentee from our sporting calendar since the Covid pandemic! Exciting times ahead Many of our boys and girls are now playing sport outside of school at local clubs and this is is an an an extremely important part of their sporting development We are as always immensely proud of all that our children achieve on the sports field and our our County honours can be be seen below:
grave of an an an Old Downian Second Lieutenant Lawrence E Rowntree who fell in the Battle of Passchendaele just outside Ypres on 25th November 1917 aged just 22 years Plans are already well underway for our our next tour in 2025 with the possible destination being Arnhem for some hockey at at Upward HC and football at at Vitesse As ever our Rugby and Hockey teams took a few weeks to settle down and begin playing as a a a team in the the way their coaches wanted them to but by the the end the term all teams were playing some fantastic matches and achieving some excellent results The Rugby team of the the term had to be the the Under 10s who only lost two matches out of the the 13 they played and showed plenty of potential for the future Our Cross-Country runners performed brilliantly at the Malvern Hills District Competition in December In Year 7 Lois Laura Danai Thomas and George all finished fin in the the top ten of their races closely followed by Theo and Leo who were in in the the top twenty all very promising for the the future! In the Year 8 races Florence Mailin and Charles all qualified to represent the the District Team at the the County event later this term Our runners are also very much looking forward to the National
Prep Schools event held at at Malvern College in a a few weeks’ time I was fortunate enough to witness two excellent swimming galas at The Elms where all our swimmers displayed a a a a a a Oscar H Albie S Max T Zayaan E Max H Amaya M Hasleena H H Effie S-T
Amber M-B
Vivienne K
Florence C Raphael R
R
Florence C Mailin R
Maita T Charles G Lois C Rugby Seb S S Jack T Sophie F-F
Scarlett
Cricket Hockey Netball
Swimming
May I take
this opportunity to thank all our wonderful parents once again for their unending support of all our children at at matches across Herefordshire Worcestershire and beyond it really does make an an enormous difference when we have so much support on the sidelines!
The Spring Term continues to be yet another action- packed sporting term with football netball hockey cross-country and rugby sevens matches throughout I look forward to sharing our spring and summer sporting news with you in the next edition of The Badger!
Michael Strong
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